


Sub-vocals and Sleep-aids

by Anarchyinplasma



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Cute, F/F, Fluff, Short, subharmonics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26804683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarchyinplasma/pseuds/Anarchyinplasma
Summary: As the Tempest cruises between planets and stars, Vetra and Ryder enjoy some time just to themselves.
Relationships: Vetra Nyx/Female Ryder | Sara
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Sub-vocals and Sleep-aids

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Andromeda Journal, Vetra Nyx](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22558744) by [SufferingIsAChoice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SufferingIsAChoice/pseuds/SufferingIsAChoice). 



> Mass Effect bit me with the bug for the first time in 7 or 8 years and it's a strong one, by god. Shakarian will always have a special place in my heart but Vetra is such and adorable combination of smooth-talking con-woman and complete dork that I had to crack this one out quickly, hope it's enjoyable.

“You know you purr right?”  
“...Excuse me?”  
“Shhh Vetra, I’m listening to you purr for me.”  
Ryder’s ear flattens against her keel and Vetra sighs, subharmonics fluctuating a humming rumble in fond exasperation.  
“I don’t purr, Sara.”  
“Yes you do.” A hand reaches up and caresses her mandible, blunt nails dragging ever so slightly on her uneven plating; Vetra takes a deep breath through her nose and counts silently to ten, willing her lover to make a tiny bit of sense.

They’re curled up in Ryder’s bed in the pathfinder quarters on the Tempest, just relaxing with each-other and a long view into the black. Tiny points of light glimmer in the distance and Vetra studies them through the gigantic clouds of gas drifting around the ship as they pass through a nebula. Almost unbidden, she starts humming to herself, a soft rendition of the turian Imperial Anthem emerging from her voice-boxes in idle contentment.

“You have a pretty voice.” Ryder mumbles, almost dream-like; seeming utterly entranced by the variety of sounds she’s being treated to. Vetra gives her a bright snippet of laughter.  
“If I’d known all it took to seduce you was my subharmonics I’d have stuck your face in my chest and hummed at you sooner.” Ryder gives a distracted hum of her own and Vetra feels a pair of fingertips brush the most sensitive areas of her waist.  
“Stop that.” She growls teasingly, and Ryder shivers on top of her.  
“Not if it’ll make you growl like that I won’t.” She strokes her thumb over the same area and Vetra catches her wrist between finger and thumb.  
“Stop that Sara.” She growls, enjoying Ryder’s satisfied shiver. She catches both of her human’s wrists and pins her hands between the two of them.  
“Fine.” Ryder grumbles petulantly, lapsing into silence.

Vetra enjoys the silence and company for a few minutes, then takes a look down at Ryder’s expression and sighs.  
“You don’t have to plaster on that look like I just spaced your favourite gun you know, just tell me what you want.” Ryder grins and climbs up her bondmate, resting her head directly under her chin.  
“Sing something to me.”  
“I don’t sing,” Vetra deadpans, mandibles fluttering in a silent laugh, “and if you’re that infatuated with my subharmonics you want your ear slightly lower, the syrinx is where my windpipe splits. I also can’t sing with your head keeping my jaw in place.” She taps a talon at just the right spot on her plates and Ryder dutifully moves downwards, cuddling up close and waiting.

With no idea what her bondmate wants, Vetra starts to hum Die For The Cause again. Seeing Ryder’s blissful expression gives her subharmonics a happy overtone and she sings the next few lines.

“Et ibit mors laetus ad hominem sicut ad  
maius bonum in populum,  
et mori. Dulce et decorum est  
pro patria nostra causa.”

Ryder’s eyebrow raises upwards and Vetra stops singing, emitting a confused trill as she cocks her head to the side.  
“What are you singing to me?”  
“Turian Imperial Anthem.” Vetra shrugs. “Seemed to be what you liked before.”  
“What’s it mean? My translator doesn’t do lyrics.” Ryder asks.  
“That part?” Vetra takes a second and considers how best to phrase it for the translator; “We will go happily into death for the good of the people because it is noble and good to die for the cause.” She shrugs again and then her mandibles flutter widely at Ryder’s somewhat aghast expression. “What Sara?”

“Kinda morbid isn’t it?” The human nestled in her arms asks and Vetra trills a bright effervescent laugh.  
“That’s just Turian culture. There’s a reason the Imperial Anthem is called ‘Die For The Cause’, we’re all about that kind of thing.”  
“You’re not going to go dying on me are you?” Ryder asks in a somewhat growly tone, holding unblinking eye contact with her bondmate. Vetra shakes her head.  
“Nah, I’m not a particularly traditional Turian, remember?” She trails the tip of a talon over Ryder’s bond-mark where her neck meets her clavicle to emphasise her point and enjoys the shiver it elicits.  
“Good girl.” Ryder smiles and leaves a trail of kisses up Vetra’s neck under her jaw, ending up over the scar tissue of the matching bond-mark.

“I still don’t know how you got that deep enough to scar.” Vetra hums, amused. “You trying to mark me was laughably adorable.”  
“It’s not my fault I don’t have fangs Vetra. I’m human, I have normal teeth. For eating food, not my romantic partner.” Too late, Ryder realises exactly where her lover is going to take that remark as the sub-vocals under her ear give a deep hum of amusement.  
“That explains an awful lot about your use of your mouth; or lack thereof.”  
“Oh my God…” Ryder buries her face in Vetra’s neck and blushes as red as the hypergiant star Vetra can see out of the window.

“I had heard so much about human and asari mouths from so many people and the first time left a lot to be desired, that’s all I’m saying.” Ryder huffs and buries her face deeper into Vetra’s neck.  
“I’d never gone down on a turian before, I said I was sorry.” Both of Vetra’s voice-boxes hum with laughter and she cards a pair of talons through Ryder’s purple dyed hair.  
“Don’t worry, you more than made up for it on subsequent attempts,” she leans down and purrs the next few words into Ryder’s ear; “isn’t that right, carissime caritate?”

Ryder blushes harder as she always does at an untranslated turian endearment.  
“What does that one mean?” she asks once some of the blood has left her face and she can look Vetra in the eye again.  
“The literal translation would be ‘dearest love’. ” Vetra sounds the words out individually for the translator to pick up, lest they be lost in the phrase again. “It means more than that though, sort of ‘one who is closest to me in every way’, it’s an endearment term for bondmates.”

Ryder moves up and presses a long kiss to Vetra’s mandible.  
“That’s so sweet,” she hums; placing her lips right next to Vetra’s ear, “carissime caritate.” The turian’s entire body stiffens on hearing that. It’s flat without a syrinx, and the lips instead of mouth-plates and the flat teeth mean the pronunciation is as butchered as a piece of livestock; but that really doesn’t matter to Vetra as much as the thought behind it.

“Don’t let Sid hear you call me that.” she says with the turian equivalent of a smirk rumbling through her keel and throat. “She’ll think we’ve both gone all soft.”  
“You always call me soft.” Ryder dead-pans into her neck; Vetra’s laughter hisses out of her mouth in quiet waves.  
“You are soft.” She pokes Ryder’s ribs gently with a talon to illustrate her point. “All soft places and weird squishy flesh.”  
“I thought you liked my weird squishy flesh.” Ryder purrs into a mandible, feeling it flutter against her lips as Vetra laughs.  
“I can like things that are weird.”  
“I don’t know why I let you stay in this nice warm bed with me if all you do is call me weird.”

The plate under Ryder’s ear vibrates with a rumbling purr that sounds equal parts contrite and endlessly amused and she relaxes completely, curling up to the heat that Vetra gives out like a living radiator. She’d asked about that once, unsure why a people who evolved on a planet like Palaven would be that warm blooded. Vetra had replied that they weren’t as warm as they felt, not really, but metallic plates conducted heat a lot better than skin.

“Are you sleepy now?” A pair of talons card through her hair and Ryder sighs an affirmative into the skin at her neck. Vetra trills a happy little sound at seeing her bondmate so content and adjusts herself so Ryder will be a bit more comfortable; turning the lights in the cabin off as she does so.  
“I love your purring.” Ryder murmurs, already in a light doze. Vetra gives a rumble of amusement beneath her.  
“Good night, carissime caritate.” she whispers as quietly as she can as Ryder’s breathing evens out.

With her bondmate sleeping peacefully as can be, Vetra turns her attention back to the black and all the stars waiting to be explored. Ryder will be up soon enough, and they have all the time in their own little world.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know Turians don't have ears but I didn't know how else to put it and also yes I used Latin as the Turian language because the amazing "Shakarian - A Descent Into Madness" (https://archiveofourown.org/series/1246385) series does and it allows me to actually put my Latin education to use in a way that I am 110% sure my Latin professor never ever saw coming (also come on they're just Space-Raptor-Romans).
> 
> Hope it was enjoyable.


End file.
